


More Alike Than Not

by lady_needless_litany



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Everybody Lives, F/F, First Meetings, Post-Star Wars: A New Hope, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:41:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23510248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lady_needless_litany/pseuds/lady_needless_litany
Summary: It takes a chance meeting with someone very unexpected for Leia to realise that she's not alone
Relationships: Jyn Erso/Leia Organa
Comments: 6
Kudos: 20
Collections: Party in the GFFA: Star Wars Flash Exchange 2020





	More Alike Than Not

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Blitzeen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blitzeen/gifts).



Leia had been at Echo Base just shy of a month, but the cold had already settled into her bones so deeply that she wasn't sure she'd ever be warm again. Even here, when the heat of the overcrowded canteen was making her sweat and open the front of her jacket, the cold somehow remained.

She shifted from foot to foot, slowly inching her way towards the front of the line — the only problem with Echo Base’s facilities was that they could barely handle the base’s number of personnel, which meant that it took twenty minutes to get a plate of food, if you wanted to eat at a standard mealtime.

Of course, there was an officer's mess, of sorts, though it was nothing more than a smaller, quieter version of the general canteen. Even more private was the small room off the main command room, where members of the rebel council sequestered themselves whenever there was a moment's calm, for a meal or a more informal conversation. Leia would've been welcomed in either, had she presumed to join them. It certainly would’ve made her life a lot easier.

But even the thought felt wrong. Despite her rank, she was closer to most of the Rebellion's foot-soldiers and pilots in age and in experience — even then, it felt like the majority of Rebellion personnel outmatched her. Besides, she reasoned, it was good to keep an ear to the ground and an eye on morale, if nothing else.

So, she ate the communal canteen, without fail. 

It was fine, apart from the overly long queues. There was also a certain degree of hero-worshipping that she had to contend with. She appreciated it, she really did, but there were days when it was unbearable, oppressive, stifling. Like today.

Every day for the last three or four years had been stressful; that was the nature of trying to direct a galaxy-wide uprising. There were particular days, though, that were worse than others, for no discernable reason, when every was just too much - everyone was acclimated to her presence enough that she no longer received stares at every hour of the day, but sitting down and eating with people inevitably resulted in questions. Questions about Alderaan and the Death Star and _what’s the plan? What are we doing next?_

The prompting of the person distributing food temporarily snapped her out of her malaise; without noticing, she’d made it to the front. Managing a weak smile, she took the plate of ambiguous-looking stew that was offered.

With a muttered ‘thank you’, she pivoted to face the rest of the fun, which was full of rectangular, six-person tables. She cast her eye over the room, hoping that there was an empty table. She contemplated the option of taking her dinner to some obscure corner, just to avoid the questions. The longer she looked, the further her heart sank. She was out of luck, it seemed.

And then she spied something. Not an empty table, but one that was sparsely populated. She recognised the woman from Alliance reports and Imperial 'wanted' posters: _Jyn Erso. Sergeant. Alliance Special Forces,_ Leia's brain informed her, helpfully. And then, more importantly: _Scarif. Rogue One. The Death Star._

Leia had always meant to seek her out, to thank her, but she'd been in hospital when Luke and Han had been presented with their medals, and it had slipped her mind since then. In all honesty, she hadn't even known that Jyn had decided to stay with the Rebellion, let alone that she was at Echo Base.

The force of Jyn Erso's glare was enough to keep most people from taking a seat at the table, but Leia made her way over to the table, wending her way through the busyness.

Her arrival, though, precipitated no reaction, even when she stood opposite Jyn and cast a shadow over the table.

She cleared her throat. “May I sit here?”

Jyn looked up at her, mistrustful. She said nothing, but made a stabbing motion with her fork, which Leia took as a concession.

Leia deposited her plate on the table and sat down. “I'm Leia.”

“I know,” she replied. Then, looking across and seeing in Leia’s eyes a resoluteness that matched her own, she relented. “Jyn Erso.”

“I know.”

Jyn didn't reply to that. She didn't hold Leia's gaze, either. She just went back to her food, in the manner of someone that had been fighting long enough to never take a full meal for granted. Leia followed her lead, taking a spoonful of food — it was chewy and fairly tasteless, giving her plenty of time to covertly observe the woman opposite her.

It was strange: they both knew the other's role in the Death Star's story and how instrumental the other had been. The knowledge sat between them, unspoken. And there was a degree of discomfort, too, in the fact that Jyn's father had built it and Leia's family had paid the price.

"Thank you," Leia said eventually. It was awkward, but it was important, so she tried to organise her thoughts into some semblance of a sentence. "For, well, the plans."

"I was just finishing what my father started," Jyn replied, with a weary and frustrated tone that indicated that her answer was well-practiced.

"You must be sick of hearing about it."

"Yeah, well, it affected all of us, didn't it?"

Leia caught the way that Jyn's eyes darkened, immediately regretting her words as she realised who she was speaking to. "I think the two of us know that better than most."

Jyn just nodded. Leia was getting the feeling that she was a woman of few words. In theory, she probably should have been offended at her abruptness, but it was strangely refreshing to be spoken to without pomp and ceremony, or stumbling adoration. In fact, it was rather like the way that Han — the only person, besides Luke, who treated her like a human being, rather than a princess — behaved. Just without the side-helping of arguing for the sake of arguing.

Besides, Jyn had piqued her interest. "The attention that you get must be difficult."

She shrugged. "I've gotten used to it."

"Still."

Jyn looked like she was about to throw down her fork and leave. “Sorry, Your Highness-”

“Please, don’t call me that," she interrupted. "Just Leia. Or - or ‘general’, if we have to stick to titles.”

Every time she heard _Your Highness_ , she was reminded of the home and the family that no longer existed; every time she heard _Your Majesty_ , she was reminded of the terrible responsibility that she bore to the remnants of her people, now Queen of Alderaan in all but name.

Jyn corrected herself. "Sorry, _general_ , but this feels like an interrogation."

A pang of guilt, or something strange similar. "Don't worry, it's not. I'm just… curious."

"Hm."

"Still," Leia conceded. "I've been a bit overenthusiastic. I apologise."

Jyn made a noise of acknowledgement. She took her time chewing and swallowing her next mouthful, before saying, "I'm used to being pestered."

"Exactly. Me too. That's why I sat here - so get away from all that for a while. So… I'm sorry."

"Really, it's fine."

Leia left it there and the two of them continued eating in silence.

“When we were looking for a new base,” Jyn said, some minutes later, suddenly breaking their tacit moratorium on speaking. “Would it have killed High Command to have picked a planet that didn’t try to freeze our balls off?”

“Trust me, I’ve been asking myself the same question. You can blame General Dodonna for this one.”

“You didn’t get a say in the matter?”

“Kriff, no. They just drafted me in to oversee operations here, and that was only a couple of weeks ago. It was already built.” Leia rolled her eyes. “To be fair, nowhere that I scouted was any more hospitable.”

“Figures,” she grumbled. She sighed. “I’m on patrol in half an hour, I’d better go.”

“Well, I’m glad it’s not my poor company that’s driving you off.”

“Look, you’ve been better company than my squad, which is who I usually eat with.”

_Unexpected_. “That’s high praise, Sergeant Erso, coming from you.”

It was possible, Leia thought, that Jyn almost smiled. If the urge had arisen, though, she contained it well. Instead, she simply replied, "You have a brain, you're not irritating. I'll take it."

Leia's eyes sparkled. "We'll make it a regular arrangement, then."

“Only if you promise not to interrogate me.”

With no shortage of melodrama, Leia held a hand to her heart. “I swear it. Upon my life.”

It was, apparently, satisfactory. “Until next time.”

Jyn gave a short nod and departed, leaving Leia alone. She went back to her half-eaten lunch, surprised to find an odd sense of buoyancy within her. No, it was more than that — despite Jyn’s apparent surliness, Leia felt genuinely _better_ for talking to her. More relaxed, yet also more energised; it formed a stark contrast with the automatic go-go-go that her life had demanded in recent months. It took a remarkable person to have such an impact in so little time, and with so little interaction. Already, she was looking forward to her next meal with Jyn, she thought, unable to stop herself smiling.


End file.
